Dachau Concentration Camp

Dachau Concentration Camp Reviews

I took the tour with Radius Tours, which is located in the Munich Central Train Station (Hauptbahnhhof). The guide meets you right at the office and then escorts you on the 20 minute train ride to the city of Dachau. The guide takes you on a tour of the grounds inside the Concentration Camp and gives an extended history of Hitler and the numerous camps across Europe. The guide is very educated and answers your questions to the best of her ability. I highly recommend this tour with Radius Tours.

Once you pass through the gate the atmosphere changes instantly. There is a disheartening sadness that is blanketed over this place, but yet a hopeful calm that comes with it. Being here reminds you that we cant just turn our backs to someone else's problems simply because they aren't our own. The air still has a slight smell to it, and you can almost imagine the strong smell of flesh and hair being burnt when it was used. Even a group of rambunctious & loud American high schoolers were instantly quiet and solemn once inside & were silent still when they left for a good half hour or more. you can feel the energy in this place go trough you with every step you take. This is one place I feel every human should go, young, old, man, or woman. The intensity is very humbling. If you go, you wont regret it.

A short train ride and bus ride from Munich can get you to see Dachau Concentration Camp(CC). Dachau was the first CC and the one where they would train the functioners of other CC's. Take the train from the main train station to Dachau for half an hour. At the Dachau train station you will get on a bus for a short ride to the CC (just follow everybody else trying to get there). You will walk through the gate that says 'work will set you free' in German, the phrase all CC's took for their gates modeled after Dachau. There are a few remaining structures left such as one barracks room which is sectioned to show what conditions were like for different time periods, the 'shower room', an excellent museum, a few memorial buildings, and a bunker. I didnt think a tour guide was necessary as the listening guide was excellent. The museum shows a documentary. I must warn you that the images can be pretty gruesome and i dont recommend it if you are squimish or a young child. Seeing Dachau is a must if you are in Munich.

Dachau Concentration Camp is named after the town that it is located in, just outside of Munich. Getting to it, there is a local bus that does drop you off near there. Make sure you ask someone at the hotel for the exact bus number. Then walk to the entrance of the camp, through a gate that says “arbeit macht frei”, translating into "work makes you free", giving false hope to people being held there.

This was the very first concentration camp, opened in 1933, sometime before World War II. Used to imprison people, for political prisoners and prisoners of war.

There is a museum, which used to be the camp administration building. There are exhibits that tell the horrible history of the camp, with sections getting into different aspects. It starts with the rise of the Nazis, the camp system, how it was run, the type of prisoners, and daily life there, among other things. Plus a little information about the various prisoners who were in Dachau. And a short film as well, which is definitely worth a watch.

Other things to see, include the crematorium, gas chamber, the International Monument, and various memorials on the grounds. Plus you can go inside one of the bunkers and barracks as well. I talked a little more about these places in the blog entry.

I have heard people complain that it has been “cleaned up” and looks “too nice” when compared to other camps (like Auschwitz), but I still think this place is a must-visit. For starters, this was the one that started the horrors of the Holocaust. And still, this was an actual place where it really happened, and how we should never forget!

Needless to say, any visitor to Munich, should not miss this place at all!

A short bus ride 18 km's from the German city of Munich you will find Dachau a Nazi Concentration Camp which some of you may have heard of before. It is where the first ever concentration camp was constructed in Germany, only 18 km’s away from Munich. All Concentration Camps built under Nazi power were modeled after Dachau. Heinrich Himmler ordered its construction in March 1933, originally for the political enemies of the Nazi regime. In the years after, other social, ethnic and racial enemies were imprisoned in Dachau the only camp to remain fully operational during the entire Third Reich period. At the time of liberation, over 200000 prisoners had been imprisoned there, with around 42000 of these dying. It’s a very somber place to be in, You cant help reflect on what others have been through only a generation ago and how good you have it yourself. We walked the ground where many were tortured and brutally beaten to death. Where people slept in overcrowded barracks on mattresses made of straw and one blanket each with lines on it. When these prisoners made their beds all the lines had to match exactly to the bed next or the whole room would be punished. Often ending in death for many. Their barracks were also to be kept immaculately clean, not a stain on the floor or fingerprint on a window. Some of the buildings remain still standing and others have been rebuilt. We walked through the crematorium where bodies laid for weeks or months waiting to be burnt. Among those 200,000 people were thousands of Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, People of all colours and Nations the Nazi's considered inferior, They all suffered through these atrocities, many of whom lost their lives because of their faith and beliefs. At the assembly yard is a memorial to all those who suffered or lost there life at Dachau, where you can see the colored triangles the Nazi made the prisoners wear to identify them. The conditions described to us and the treatment of the prisoners is unimaginable, Something I will never forget! Definitely a must see for Munich.

The concentration camp here was very interesting to visit. The rusting barbed wire that surrounds the camp is a contrast to the beautiful, dense forests and gingerbread houses. The day we visited, it was cold, gloomy and wet. It really gave you a feeling of what it might have been like as a prisoner at the time. I know that is a stretch because I had a jacket, gloves, shoes and the ability to leave when and if I wanted to.

The Nazis took power in 1933 and suspended civil rights (after the German parliament building was burned) to round up political opponents. The new Nazi-appointed police chief of Munich (later the head of the SS), Heinrich Himmler, had Dachau built to handle the overflow from the jails. It evolved into a slave labor camp for Nazi industries. The entrance to Dachau had the Nazi slogan "Arbeit mach frei," or "Work will make you free."

Tens of thousands died in Dachau, although it was never an extermination camp like those set up in Poland to kill Jews and others. It appears most who died there did so from the harsh conditions. Executions were more often for disciplinary measures. The Nazis did use Dachau inmates for medical experiments that could be fatal.

The camp had largely fallen into disrepair when they decided to turn it into a memorial. Some of the camp, like the barracks, was rebuilt following the original designs.

We all have to give Germany credit for keeping Dachau as a monument. I haven't seen monuments in the United States attesting to the genocide of American Indians.

There is a lot of information out on the web about the camp, but nothing even comes close to being there. I have placed some photos here, not much commentary necessary. If you ever have a chance, take a day to just stroll, if you can, through history. They do have a great website with lots of information. Check it out at by googling Dachau.

Here's the layout: you have to pay for parking and then it's free to enter (no point in really taking the audio tour unless your an auditory learner). It can take 2-3 hours to walk through the main hall and look at all the info that was posted. It gets more depressing when you get to the end and the pictures are a little more graphic. When you're done in the main hall, you get to walk through one of the 2 remaining buildings where prisoners resided. Then you walk up the main walkway to the rear of the camp where there are newly built memorial chapels. Afterwards, the crematoirums are in the rear (the new one easily in view and the old one is slightly hidden).

It is heart-wrenching if you are empathetic person and eventhough you walk the grounds and see the guard towers, you might still not believe how any human could do certain things to another human being.

Dachau shouldn't be a place you rush through; when you to visit, take your time, carry a snack and water and wear comfy shoes. It might physically resemble McQueen's The Great Escape, but you can't leave Dachau feeling entertained.

It so hard to believe the people of the town didn't KNOW what was going on behind the walls-that's a bunch of crap!

Starting on March 22, 1933, Dachau, the first concentration camp, was set up for political prisoners. It served as the model for all later concentration camps and as a ‘school of violence’ for the SS men under whose command it stood. For the next twelve years, more than 200,000 people from all over Europe were imprisoned here and other subsidiary camps. On April 29, 1945, American troops liberated the survivors, but not before 43,000 prisoners had died. The Dachau Concentration Camp is now a memorial to all those people who survived and died. This was a sobering stop on our tour, as we toured through the memorial, reading and viewing all the information and ‘artefacts’. It was an amazingly emotional visit, one that everyone should experience. After talking to others on tour, I think most of left with a feeling of disbelief, and sadness, and of relief (only because it’s something that we, hopefully, will never have to live through, ourselves). It is free to get in, although you are required to pay for parking. You can choose to pay for the audio guided tour, but I didn’t see many people with it. We spent about two hours there.

I visited Munich on a whim in August of '09. Since I went solo, I craved the company of fellow English speaking people. I went on to viator.com and purchased the ticket for the visit to Dachau. It seemed relatively cheap, and I thought that it would be quite interesting. All I have to say is wow, I wished I had paid more attention to history class. There really wasn't enough time for me to read all of the wonderful information that they had cleverly arranged around the barracks. Just walking down the path between where the barracks used to lie was unsettling, yet oddly calming. As I mentioned, I wish I had known more of the history. All in all, I highly suggest visiting as it only is a few hours, but it is an experience that will stay will you forever.

The rain never stops. I've been in Europe for two days now and what I find most suitable is being wet, having nowhere to sit, a backpack that's my life, and personal drive that's beginning to question itself. Thoughts, just thoughts, of calling it quits surface and linger on as rain and walking become my best friends.

Enough of the gab, seeing Dachau's concentration camp was, with a stupid cue for simple word use, an 'experience'. I got off @ the town's main train station and walked the entire way to the camp in the pouring rain. I saw and experienced a lot on that path of streets neighboring houses, places of business, rural farms ripe with fertilizer and sowed lanes of vegetation and black earth, and your average German walking their Hunde. Immersed in the typical life, as always, I think about buying a cheeseburger with a Warsteiner at the local McDonald's that happened to be on the way, but opt out to buy Coca Cola Light and a sweets at a petro station nestled among cobblestone alleys that would make any band's album cover cool beans. Reaching Dachau took a while, but once I saw the tour buses I knew I had reached the gig.

"Would you like a audio tour device?" asked the guy in the booth.

Never opting for those ridiculous vibrators of tourist soup, I told the dude, "Nein, bitte," and walked to the camp.

The museum there was really good and I came out feeling an objective but accurate account was given on the things that happened at the camp. Military students were on required field trip to the site. Italians were Italians. The photography and sculptures were cool. And the book that anyone can write in was open and vacant.

Outside was a different experience. Trees make no illusion to the vast rock gardens covering the fallen and silent generations buried in the depths. Walking on the graves of thousands is not fun, but you think about what led you and others to this place. Some came to remember. Some came to die. Some came with the purpose of learning to not repeat a past of mistakes.

The church and temple there were cool, but the place really isn't a "nice place". It is, like I wrote, an experience. I saw the ovens used to burn the dead. The lockers where bodies were stored. The hooks that hung the dead. And a place I never want to go to again. Me and another old dude go inside to pay our respects to the sisters running one of the remembrance sanctuaries there; she talks to him as I wander around looking at the walls and reading letters in lost language, the language of hope.

Keep in mind that I'm soaking wet, and have been for the last ten hours ever since I left Munich on rail. The only real break where I've been able to sit down was the freakin Zug. Last memory of the camp was seeing the tourist bus people stare at me as I started my walk back to the main station in the pouring rain--oh, and I never carry parkas or weather gear, just a black hoody.

The walk back had me dazed and confused like Hunter S. Thompson jacked my mind. I thought I was lost for a moment, but I remembered the thought of a cheeseburger and beer to hone in on my location. "As long as I find the fertilizer farm," I said to myself, "I'll be sort of OK." Usually, when I walk back the way I came I take the opposite side of the road or what have you to take in something different. Oddly enough--and this happened all the time I was in Europe--Europeans asked me for directions. LMAO! You're asking the wrong, Dude. I'm American. I didn't say that, but the first group of questions came from two Italian dudes trying to speak German. I told them in a Westphalia accent, "Nicht verstehen" and laughed as they walked away talking in English of how wonderful no one seems to understand their German:) It always sucked when a hot German girl would hit on me because I would be straight up checking her out but upfront and say in American mumbling "tourist" and then look like a sad, wet puppy. Ah, traveling alone has certain perks, but not being treated like a tourist can be dangerous sometimes based on people's reactions when they find out you ARE a tourist.

Case in point, when I finally made it back to Dachau's main station everyone there was miserable in the rain. I stood out because I'm sort of built and had this look of exhaustion but blessed aura around me. Some dude smoking a Rauchen came up to me to pass small talk. I was in no mood to talk, so I told him in my dialect, "Schlekt Wetter. Sehr munde. Was ein Tage?"

He started talking again and I really didn't want to converse, so I used the old 'I don't understand trick' and it didn't work. Fast forward, the guy asked me if I was afraid of traveling by myself and worried about having my throat slit, assuming, of course, that I didn't know what he was talking about. I laughed at his comment and responded, "Nein. Nicht der Tod."

He was caught a little off guard, but then offered me a cigarette. "Nein, danke. Nicht rauchen," I said to him. After that I walked away from him to wait for the Zug elsewhere and he just looked baffled and quipped to some nearby lady about why would a German pretend to be American. LOL.

Last semester I took a class on the study of Genocide. The professor was like an encyclopedia of knowledge on this topic, but the information he provided on Nazi Germany really didnt sink in until this experience. What a somber one at that...

First you walk in and see the sign that says "work will set you free".. makes you realize why people never fought back... they had aspirations of leaving.... Too bad many suffered the fate of Gas Chambers and the Kremotorium.... When I passed this room a feeling of sadness and curiosity entered me.... I thought how could another human being gather up enough courage to destroy a human life without feeling or remorse...

You can take a self guided tour here using an ipod like recorder that provides you all of the details you need to gain the full experience.. I want to say it was like 5 EURO, but I may be wrong... I know it wasnt that much. On average they say it takes about 4 hours to take in the entire site. However, if your not the type who likes to read and stop in front of things to appreciate their worth... you could zip through in about 2-2.5 hours...

Whichever is more convinient for you is your perogative... However, to know that you stood on the same grounds that helped start a war against all of the superpowers of the world... a place where so much pain and suffering occurred... is just an overwhelming experience, which I saw brought some people to tears.

I visited Dachau sometime during the summer of 1996 and yes the experience did leave me with so much to reflect on. I remember the place was nearly deserted at the time and the row after row of where they once housed the people. I think there was a convent towards one end of the camp. I wonder if it's still there?

I studied genocide for year, and you're right: certain things do trigger and make the knowledge ever more clear and heartfelt. I found the Khmer and Ethiopian purges to be the ones I connected with most. Nazi methods, administration, and practices of genocide are just dangerous because they're almost as if some applied science that people could get a degree in.